SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The third an­nu­al Sea­son of Anan­si Fes­ti­val was launched on April 16 at Cin­e­ma One IMAX at One Wood­brook Place, Port of Spain.

Fes­ti­val founder Rubadiri Vic­tor said this year’s event caters to every au­di­ence and cel­e­brates T&T’s rich folk­lore sto­ry­telling her­itage and ex­cel­lence. It in­cor­po­rates a read­ing tour, comedic fan­ta­sy the­atre, a mul­ti­me­dia new-tech ex­hi­bi­tion and a trib­ute event.

“T&T has some of the most fas­ci­nat­ing folk­lore in the world,” he said. “We con­tin­ue to pro­duce phe­nom­e­nal sto­ry­tellers on every street cor­ner, in every ‘lime’ and in every medi­um.”

On April 19, the Na­tion­al Book­store Read­ing Tour was launched at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Book­store in Wood­brook with read­ings from Vic­tor’s works. On Sat­ur­day, the tour heads to Blue Edi­tion Book­store on St Vin­cent Street, Tu­na­puna, and on May 3, Ish­mael M Khan on Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain.

Fes­ti­val man­ag­er Joy Luk Pat said Vic­tor is com­mit­ted to re-es­tab­lish­ing read­ing as a prime leisure and plans are in train for free read­ings at book­shops.

She said stu­dents have al­ready en­joyed Vic­tor’s per­for­mances and from April to June, the Na­tion­al School Sto­ry­telling Tour hosts pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools.

On May 15 at IMAX Port-of-Spain there will be the gala launch of a three-week in­ter­na­tion­al mul­ti­me­dia ex­hi­bi­tion, The In­fi­nite: The Rise of Afro-Fu­tur­ism and the Grow­ing Glob­al In­flu­ence of Anan­si.

Afro-Fu­tur­ism is sto­ry­telling by black, brown, and eth­nic peo­ples free from shack­les and stereo­types, in­clud­ing Black Sci-Fi and Fan­ta­sy.

May 16 fea­tures the in­ter­na­tion­al de­but of an NFT (Non-Fun­gi­ble To­ken) of hip hop mar­tyr Nipsey Hus­sle from Hus­sle’s Trinida­di­an men­tor Dex­ter Browne. That event in­clud­ed a fea­ture ad­dress by in­ter­na­tion­al dig­i­tal artist Vince Fras­er whose im­mer­sive vir­tu­al rooms are lo­cat­ed through­out Lon­don and have been com­mis­sioned in Dubai and around the world.

On May 17 there will be an in­ter­na­tion­al Zoom sym­po­sium on The Fu­ture of Afro-Fu­tur­ism fea­tur­ing dozens of in­ter­na­tion­al prac­ti­tion­ers. The ex­hi­bi­tion was an­chored by new mul­ti­me­dia and vir­tu­al art by lo­cal pi­o­neers Jen “Nor­mal Nor­mal” Benoit, James Hack­ett, and Richard ‘Char­su’ Ahong.

On May 21, for the 10th an­niver­sary of Vic­tor’s the­atre com­pa­ny Wire Bend­ing Folk­lore The­atre, there will be a one-day restag­ing of their most pop­u­lar play, Anan­si and the 10 Drag­ons, at Queen’s Hall.

It will be staged for schools at 9 am and 12 pm, and for adults, there will be a cock­tail gala from 6 pm. This cer­e­mo­ny pays trib­ute to two gen­er­a­tions of young su­per­star sto­ry­tellers, in­clud­ing Roger Alex­is and Ro’Dey.

The fes­ti­val ends on June at 6 pm with a trib­ute event ho­n­our­ing el­der sto­ry­tellers Paul Keens Dou­glas and Aun­tie Thea at the Lit­tle Carib The­atre. An af­ter-par­ty will fol­low at the Big Black Box The­atre on Mur­ray Street, Wood­brook.

Vic­tor said he’s se­ri­ous about pass­ing on an­ces­tral folk­lore.

“Anan­si the Spi­der is one of the most im­por­tant char­ac­ters of West African and Caribbean folk­lore,” he said.

“Anan­si tales orig­i­nal­ly came from the Ashan­ti/Akan peo­ple of Ghana, West Africa and crossed to the Caribbean and New World with cap­tives dur­ing the hor­rif­ic At­lantic Slave Trade.

“A hand­ful of the sto­ries sur­vived the bru­tal­i­ty of the plan­ta­tion and thrived in the Caribbean where Anan­si is cel­e­brat­ed as a sym­bol of re­sis­tance and sur­vival, with the trick­ster of­ten able to turn the ta­bles on pow­er­ful op­pres­sors by cun­ning and wit.”

This year’s fes­ti­val is posthu­mous­ly ded­i­cat­ed to Glenn “Drag­on” De Souza, a Na­tion­al Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal awardee, lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-famed Moko Jumbie per­son­al­i­ty and An­der­son Mitchell, graph­ic artist, an­i­ma­tor, and capoeirista, among oth­er ac­com­plish­ments.

All three Anan­si nov­els - Anan­si & the 10 Drag­ons, Anan­si & the Book of Night, and Anan­si in the Land of Mon­sters & Oth­er Sto­ries - will be avail­able at a pop-up store at IMAX dur­ing the ex­hi­bi­tion along­side oth­er mer­chan­dise, as well as www.dig­i­tal­canopi.com and book­stores na­tion­wide.

Tick­ets for the sea­son’s events are avail­able at is­landet­ick­ets.com and at venues to be an­nounced.

For fes­ti­val up­dates vis­it www.sea­sono­fanan­si.com or so­cial me­dia at New Ad­ven­tures of Anan­si or rubadiriv­ic­tor.